Na Castelloza was a noblewoman and trobairitz

Trobairitz

The trobairitz were Occitan female troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries, active from around 1170 to approximately 1260. The word trobairitz was first used in the 13th-century romance Flamenca. It comes from the Provençal word trobar, the literal meaning of which is "to find", and the...

 from Auvergne

Auvergne (province)

Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....

. According to her later vida

Vida (Occitan literary form)

Vida is the usual term for a brief prose biography, written in Old Occitan, of a troubadour or trobairitz.The word vida means "life" in Occitan languages. In the chansonniers, the manuscript collections of medieval troubadour poetry, the works of a particular author are often accompanied by a...

, she was the wife of Turc de Mairona, probably the lord of Meyronne

Meyronne

Meyronne is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France....

. Turc's ancestors had participated in a Crusade around 1210 or 1220, which was the origin of his name (meaning "Turk

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

"). She was reputed to have been in love with Arman de Brion, a member of the house of Bréon and of greater social rank than her, about whom she wrote several songs. Her vida records her to have been "very gay", "very learned", and "very beautiful". Only three—perhaps four if recents scholarship is accepted—of her songs (all cansos

Canso (song)

The canso is a song style used by the troubadours. It consists of three parts. The first stanza is the exordium, where the composer explains his purpose. The main body of the song occurs in the following stanzas, and usually draw out a variety of relationships with the exordium. The canso can end...

) survive, all without music. This, however, makes her at least the second most prolific of trobairitz in terms of surviving works: only Beatriz de Dia certainly has more, with four cansos to her name. The subject of all her poems is courtly love

Courtly love

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....

.

Compared with Beatriz de Dia, Castelloza is a more conservative poet. Her persona throughout her works is consistent and though she raises the tension between conditional and unconditional love she always remains committed to absolute fidelity.

One scholar, Peter Dronke

Peter Dronke

Ernest Peter Michael Dronke FBA is a scholar specialising in Medieval Latin literature. He is one of the 20th century's leading scholars of medieval Latin lyric, and his book The Medieval Lyric is considered the standard introduction to the subject.-Life and career:Dronke was born in Cologne in...

, has seen Castelloza's songs as forming a lyric cycle.

Sources

• Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. "Fictions of the Female Voice: The Women Troubadours." Speculum
  Speculum (journal)
  Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies is a quarterly academic journal published by the Medieval Academy of America. It was established in 1926. The journal's primary focus is on the time period from 500-1500 in Western Europe, but also on related subjects such as Byzantine, Hebrew, Arabic, and...
  
  , Vol. 67, No. 4. (Oct., 1992), pp. 865–891.
• Coldwell, Maria V. "Castelloza." Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy.
• Gravdal, Kathryn. "Mimicry, Metonymy, and 'Women's Song': the Medieval Women Trobairitz." Romanic Review, 83:4 (1992:Nov.) pp. 411–427.
• Paden, William D., Jr. "The Poems of the 'Trobairitz' Na Castelloza." Romance Philology, 35:1 (1981:Aug.), pp. 158–182.
• Schutz, A. H. "Where Were the Provençal 'Vidas' and 'Razos' Written?" Modern Philology, Vol. 35, No. 3. (Feb., 1938), pp. 225–232.
• Shapiro, Marianne. "The Provençal Trobairitz and the Limits of Courtly Love." Signs, Vol. 3, No. 3. (Spring, 1978), pp. 560–571.
• Weiss, Julian. "Lyric Sequences in the Cantigas d'amigo." Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 65:1 (1988:Jan.), pp. 21–38.